When Gilbert DeHearn, 85, opened his letterbox, he couldn’t believe his eyes: three accordion postcards from his aunt, who had immigrated to America. Only Aunt Helene Lemahieu passed away already in 2013. Postcards were also stamped in 1976. So they have been traveling from Florida to Ypres for less than 46 years.
The three accordion postcards feature the three cities of Clearwater, Tampa, and Walt Disney World, respectively, and locations in the U.S. state of Florida. “I had some relatives in America,” says Gilbert DeHearn. “Most of them are dead, but there are still relatives and their children. I always had a close relationship with an aunt who lived in Florida. Aunt Helene Caron was the wife of Romain LeMahieu, the younger brother of my mother, Helene LeMahieu. Aunt Helene was a postcard sender.
Visit America
“She went to America two days after my Holy Communion and we stayed in touch. In the beginning it was through correspondence, and in the last ten years we have mainly called, except for the occasional New Year’s card. I visited her several times in America and she returned to Ypres several times. He lived in Florida most of his life. Notably, she had her first and only daughter at the age of 48. After my uncle died, he moved with his daughter to North Carolina, where he passed away in 2013.
Collection of the year on the way
Gilbert found a remarkable piece of mail in his mailbox on Wednesday, September 22. “I was shocked, I thought it was very strange. It was a message from the dead,” Gilbert continues. “At that time, we regularly received postcards from her, but I do not remember any mail that did not arrive. However, sometimes it was difficult to send parcels. Sometimes the package arrived after five days, sometimes it took a month.
“Two days after my Holy Communion, Aunt Helen left for America.”
“It also took almost a year. We thought it was already lost. It finally came after 8 to 9 months. I don’t know how. It sounded in America that it was a mistake by the Belgian post, and in Belgium people refer to America. My aunt might have said something was on the way, but 46 years is a long time. Before. (laughs)
The box was thrown away
The 30-cent stamps feature the heads of Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and philosopher John Dewey. “They are old stamps. You can see that the cards are fine Traveled want They are not violated, but they are no longer new. It is very strange to me how they have come here after all these years. I’m guessing the cards got lost in a post office somewhere where there were updates and suddenly reappeared. I used to have a big box full of postcards from my aunt, but threw them all away years ago. Now I will have this. They’re actually little time capsules, because those places look completely different now than these maps do.
Baker and Editor
Gilbert was never married and had no children. He has lived in a stately teacher’s house in Minneapolis for over sixty years. He has an older brother, Willie, who is deceased, and a younger brother, Johnny, who lives in Roselaar. “I am a baker and pastry chef. I had a bakery on the old Hautmarkstraat. I stopped when I was fifty. I had had enough of that slave labor: I worked at night, on weekends… I worked without a day off for over twenty years. I taught for a few years,” says Gilbert. All over his living room are beautiful colorful paintings, including the Ypres Grote Markt. “They’re all mine. Although I didn’t go to the academy, I’ve been painting since I was young. I haven’t painted in twenty years because of my profession and my job. Since retiring, I’ve been making up for my losses. Now I can’t live without painting, but I’ve never exhibited. It’s not necessary. I’ve never wanted to be front and center.”
